Hi All, It’s been a while. Here’s what’s happening with Crab and Salmon. Crab. 2023 has been a great year for crab. They generally work in a 6 year cycle with biomass and this year was a peak. Crab is one thing that was got right by  Fish & Game in there early days of set up. Only the large males are kept so the breeding cycle is not affected. This has been the year of large and plentiful crab. The meat quality and content has also been excellent. We are slowing down now as the season winds up. I’ll keep you all posted as we go along this year. I’ll keep politics out of this post as I’ll end up writing a novel. Salmon. Last year it was closed and do not expect much this year. We had our 1st report from the NMFS for this season and the politics is crucifying the industry. I’ll vent more later on this. Excuse the spasmodic posts here. I’ve been trotting along just using my Mailchimp service and texting. I’ll work more here with more detail. Have a good one out there!!!! Captain Barry        

Hi all, It’s been an arduous journey to get a start on a crab season this year. Our November 15th start is a battle to recover and our front line in battle. This battle is all about the whales. Whales are cool, I live with them. They all have different characters. I’ve got to have a dig at our politicized far right NGOs Here’s how I see it. My job is on the ocean and the whales are doing just fine. There’s plenty, we are not blowing them up with exploding harpoons and dragging them back to shore for lamp oil. Every year I see more. But it’s not in the NGO’s interest to tell you all that. They are grant money based and they need to show results. We are the soft target and they publicize exaggerated harm and doom whilst crowing on success in stopping us evil fisherman. Meanwhile we are jumping around trying to make a living while controlled by the scared weird little guys portraying environmental wisdom. That’s that crowd in a nutshell. May the crabs bite there asses and give them a true taste of nature. Sooooo Oregon and from Eureka up got to start on time this year. There is crab there and the boats have done well. Alaskan King crab and Opilio crabs are not being harvested this year. That only leaves Dungeness and blue crab on the market. We all know the results of freezing crab meat. Stringy slivers a bit like tooth picks. December 29th is our start date. A fine lumpy winter to be had by us harvesters. But, we’ll get some. Get your butter ready for melting for New Year’s Eve. If your this far into my post, your the real deal. Here’s my recipe. boil the crab whole for 15 to 18 minutes on the 2nd boil. Add some salt to the water before boiling.   Once cooked. Break them up into there edible pieces. The mustard (or brown muck for learners) well if you don’t like it try this. Get it all aside, scoop it out of the shell. A dash of worcheshire sauce and some sour cream. Mix her all up and put it on the table. Don’t tell anyone what it is. Tell ‘em it’s a dip. You’ll be surprised at the raving on its fine flavor. I’ll leave it to you’s if you want to expose the truth. EAT CRAB.        

Hi All, 2021 salmon season ended October 15th. What a season. It was the year of the rodeo. The ocean was at its formidable best, but the salmon were there. They were generally on the continental shelf so it was offshore most of the season. Our season this year was segmented. A stop start scenario this was due to the negotiations with Nmfs to get time on water vs there predicted salmon count. It’s great they were so off the mark this year as the salmon were plentiful. It’s a funny world to live in from sea to land. What I sea on the ocean vs the doom and gloom on land is the paradox. Basically I’m seeing a healthy improving ocean out there. Plenty of whales, sea lions. Blue sharks are back. Prolific schools of juvenile black cod. Miles upon miles of anchovies. The enigma this year was nmfs prediction on ocean salmon being so far off. I’m sure nmfs are glad also that there is significantly more salmon than they forecast. Let’s hope we get some good rain come for our glutinous water users this coming rain season. The ocean certainly isn’t the issue. I finished the season catching some salmon that were certainly not running up the river system this year. I think there raw essence on survival has our feeble bantering with theory and thesis leaving us the lessor. I’d like to end my short note here by thanking everybody for there support by tasting the beautiful King Salmon. There’s plenty of hope in our future here. Cdfw this year transported a lot of smelt to the lower end of our tributary system. Small moves like that will show huge results in coming seasons. My next post will be on the gnarly little bottom dweller. The Dungeness crab. Another political football in our land dealings.

Hi all, May gave us our 1st round of a segmented salmon season. We got to fish 17 days in May below Pigeon Point. Weather was the big factor, it was a rodeo but the fish were there. Suppliers pricing at the hoist ranged from $9 to $12.50. Basically the only real volume of salmon on the west coast have been between Monterey and Pigeon Point. For those of you that got a salmon from me, Thankyou, and I have no doubt you enjoyed our legendary Californian King. I’ll list here our remaining days on the ocean for salmon. June 16th to 30th July 17th to 22nd. August 1st to 17th. All of September and 1st 2 weeks of October. That is a bit mealed season. With each day on the water being precious coupled with strong prices from suppliers. My only certainty for dock sales is at the end of each opener in June, July and August. Coming end of June. We have July 4th market for you all. I’ll be doing a email for this once we are closer and know we can provide. All in all, the whole fleet that took on the weather got a shot of juice to start our season. As with the ocean and salmon we will see how the seasons story unfolds. After our grateful start. My wife bought me a tee shirt with “chicken little was right”. I’ve been under the pretext of a Optimist is a hopeful pessimist. Let’s see how our next round goes. Thank you all. Captain Barry

Hi all, It been a while since my last post. My crewman my wife and myself all had a positive on the covid. That’s all over with thank goodness. The crab are large, 2lb average but it has been a scarce season. As of this post a lot of the fleet are stacking there gear for the season. Our current politics is we work in Fortnightly season extensions meaning the season could be closed up on notice. Currently we are averaging just under 1 legal crab per pot. That is extremely slow but my lack of business acumen has worked in my favor. I bought the Helen Ruth before I sold the Rosella. Basically I put the cart before the horse. But, both boats have a 250 pot crab permit and we have both boats pots in the water. Allen my crewman can handle the deck and we meander through our slim pickings that add up to enough for us to keep going. Basically the ocean being what it is, a force and eco system us little monkeys are constantly adjusting scientifically to. The crab are all in Alaska and Canada this year. Washington is also having a good year. The market for there crab is not live so our live crab are little gold nuggets. We have moved to $10lb off the dock. I’m not having issues with that. I know the quality is there, they have a particular sweetness to the meat this year. It was also apparent last year. I am learning this web site admin a little better. Basic things. Like I tell my wife Therese. I’m not real bright but I can lift heavy things. Let’s see how our crab season ends up. Lastly and very importantly, I realize anyone reading this post has bought crab and is keeping in contact. Thankyou all for your support. Our live market, which as clients, you know is the superior product by an exaggerated mile. Our battle is not to lose this. Big business has no issues dumping frozen on the market. Thank you all again. Captain Barry

Yep, we’ve been Covid hit, I wish it was Coveted. We’ll be down for a couple weeks until we get the green light. My crew and my wife along with myself came up positive. We are not wasting too much brain space on the where and how, the main thing is none of us have the bad fever that leads to the dire consequences. I can see why it can lead to major problems, I did have a day with the hard to get breath routine, it was like being at high altitude. So folks, that’s our simple story at the moment. The crab pots will be having a truly long soak and I’ll have some real tidy paperwork up to date. I’ll do a blog once we are all clear and things are back to normal. Mid next week will be the earliest. If you need to get crab this week. Friday is a good weather day after the big blow. Boats will be out, Saturday there should be a lot of boats in harbor selling. We’ll be back!!! Barry

Wow, an absolutely astonishing and deeply appreciated Wow, on your and the public’s, support with demand for live crab. You’ve really spoken a resounding blow to the cartels attempts to feed you frozen crab. In reality the crab speak for themselves and we all know that a freshly cooked crab is unbeatable.. So, this season so far from my point of view. We got all our gear in the ocean before the opener. It was not issue free and we really only had one true day of crab retrieval, Thursday. It was that 3rd time lucky deal. We’ve had to push for that scenario before, we generally get there. This website I had set up back in about 2016 was with the spurt of thought for online sales. I have honestly not had to really go past my texting and you will note I started some emails with salmon last year. With our delayed start I had time to learn the admin side of this web page. I also learned enough on Mailchimp to notify you all of incoming fresh catch. My phone has bee full on with texts and emails. I’m overly grateful with the response I’ve had. I also had the “be careful what you ask for” scenario The opener was highly unique. We fought for our justice on a fair price then hit the water, Lo and behold the crab are not there this year. Boom the next day the suppliers price doubles. Brain fart me earlier sent you an email on a fair price mark up from original numbers. I pull back into harbor with the realization the season is going to be slow and a grind. I also see every other boat is $2 above my price and the demand through the roof. It’s all good. As you are aware I explained my predicament to you all. Your tips were generous and covered my crew feeling they had a dumb skipper. Our future with orders. Currently demand can not meet supply. It’s not wow we for us, as our usual harvest far outweighs this scenario. 2008 was the last time we had a season similar to this. I’ll need to be very careful with orders here. Over ordering is a foolish exercise and I know the efforts you go through to get to the harbor. I’ll leave this current blog here. I’m in the bath planning my next move after a tumultuous start to this season. Once again. Thank you all. By your demand for the freshest crab you have given us a stronger voice in the marketing battles we must face. Cheers Captain Barry